Date set for retrial in Fountain slaying

By CHRIS OLWELL | The News Herald

Published: Thursday, October 10, 2013 at 09:13 PM.

The guns and coins deputies found at his house were there because he was storing the items for Brazil, and because he would occasionally have too much to drink and sleep at Brazil’s house so it made sense that deputies would find his DNA, Brock testified.

The state is not seeking the death penalty, so if Brock is convicted as charged he would be sentenced to life in prison.

PANAMA CITY — A judge Thursday set a date for a second trial in a late 2012 Fountain slaying.

Phillip Brock’s first trial in September on first-degree murder charge in the death of his business associate and neighbor Terry Brazil was declared a mistrial when the 12-person jury deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict after deliberating six hours.

In Brock’s first court hearing since the trial, Judge Brantley Clark set aside an entire week beginning Nov. 12 for the retrial.

Brazil had been dead for several days by the time his body was discovered in his home Dec. 27, 2012. The 65-year-old had been shot, stabbed and beaten.

Sheriff’s deputies were looking for Brazil’s car, which they found at Brock’s home along with guns and collectable coins that belonged to Brazil. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Brock four days later after they matched his DNA to DNA found on a roll of duct tape found in the woods near Brazil’s home. The tape was similar to the kind around Brazil’s wrists when his body was found.

Prosecutor Larry Basford called numerous witnesses who testified Brazil was so hard up for money that he lived in mobile home in the woods without electricity or running water.

But Brock, 57, testified he and Brazil were friends and business associates who sold things at yard sales.

The guns and coins deputies found at his house were there because he was storing the items for Brazil, and because he would occasionally have too much to drink and sleep at Brazil’s house so it made sense that deputies would find his DNA, Brock testified.

The state is not seeking the death penalty, so if Brock is convicted as charged he would be sentenced to life in prison.

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